


Truth and Consequences

by Mareel



Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Alternate Universe, Episode Related, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-06-08
Updated: 2012-06-08
Packaged: 2017-11-07 06:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/428186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mareel/pseuds/Mareel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Weeks and years afterward, Jonathan questions the decisions he made in the Suliban detention facility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth and Consequences

**Author's Note:**

> This is a vignette that expands upon an AU of the Season 1 Episode “Detained.” The first part takes place just after the events of “Two Days and Two Nights” and Part 2 is set twenty years later. 
> 
> It was written for the 2011 episode AU challenge at the Delphic Expanse.
> 
> Thanks so much to kayjayuu for all of our discussions and for her helpful beta suggestions.

### Part I

“What made you suspect that she was Tandaran, Captain?”

I pause for a moment before answering Malcolm’s question. We’re in the Armory where I’d sought him out after our return from Risa. It hadn’t taken him long to get showered and back into uniform after whatever adventure he and Trip had down there.

I hadn’t wanted to add to his embarrassment during the shuttle flight back to _Enterprise_ – having to return home in his skivvies was demanding all the dignity he could muster. No need for him to endure a debriefing under those circumstances; that could wait for much more privacy. But I needed to know whether he thought the incident might have had any connection to my own encounter with the disguised Tandaran woman. His reply to my query was a slow shake of his head, saying that it had all the hallmarks of a typical tourist scam, probably one played out nightly in the Risan bar.

I pull my thoughts back from wishing, not for the first time, that Malcolm and I could have spent some of that shoreleave time together instead of having our separate odd encounters. But getting to know Malcolm, and winning his trust, is an ongoing process and I remind myself not to push. If there’s interest enough for a relationship to develop, it will. So I return to his question about the Tandaran.

“A lot of little things just weren’t adding up about Keyla – if that was even her name – with respect to her story. Then it suddenly hit me that the questions she was asking sounded a hell of a lot like the ones Colonel Grat kept asking me when Travis and I were guests in his detention facility. Questions about Suliban ships, plans, individuals… our friend Silik seems to have quite the reputation out here.”

Malcolm nods, his arms crossed, his head tilted as if he’s trying to put some pieces together. “I wonder if Grat might have sent her to follow us… or whoever replaced Grat could have ordered it. I don’t know if he was important enough to keep his job there after his prisoners escaped.”

I consider that for a moment… remembering the Colonel’s confidence, his air of authority.

“I don’t know, Malcolm. He certainly acted like he ran the place, but he must have had superiors, on Tandar Prime perhaps, who wouldn’t have been pleased at that turn of events.”

“Very likely not, sir. Especially if they discovered that he had apparently been a Suliban sympathizer for some time.”

That revelation catches me by surprise. I realize I’ve been pacing the small confines of Malcolm’s office and turn to face him. “A sympathizer? What do you mean?”

Malcolm’s posture shifts very subtly, becoming that of my Tactical Officer delivering a report rather than Malcolm engaging in the free-form discussion we’d been having.

“Things moved rather quickly after I located you in the isolation block, Captain. There was no opportunity to brief you at the time. I’d just escaped the clutches of Major Klev. I thought my Suliban disguise was adequate, but I must have shown some suspicious body language. Or he was just in a bad mood. He hauled me to Grat’s office, but the Colonel was talking with someone on the comm and gestured for us to wait outside. I overheard part of his conversation.”

I nod, mentally replaying my interactions with Grat, wondering if I’d missed some clue.

“Who was he talking to?”

Malcolm shakes his head, pausing a moment before continuing.

“I don’t know. Possibly someone at one of the other detention centers. He appeared to be discussing the transfer of a prisoner for humanitarian reasons. I believe his words were ‘in the interest of prisoner morale and preventing unrest… a family member…’ I didn’t hear any more of it. Klev noticed that the door was ajar and kicked it closed. At that point, Travis and two of the Suliban created a disturbance down the hall and I made a break for it and joined them. The rest you know, Captain.”

Something clicks in my memory of that day – from my last conversation with Grat. Oh my god… I try to keep the apprehension out of my voice while attempting to piece events together as best I can.

“That would mean Grat could have been telling me the truth at the end. Just before you recovered consciousness in that isolation cell and took him down, he’d been telling me that we had no right to interfere. He kept insisting that the prisoners were there for their own protection, and were treated well. I begged to disagree, pointing out that Dalik’s family had been split apart for years. He told me I knew nothing of what I was getting involved in, and that his wife’s transfer had just been approved.”

“That could have been the conversation I overheard… or not. It’s possible that he was playing on your sympathies, Captain.”

“I assumed that he was trying to buy time. Then he said, ‘I was trying to help these people in the only way I could… quietly, covertly… without raising enough suspicion to get myself replaced by someone more hard-assed than I am.’ Honestly, I still didn’t believe him. I assumed, at best, that he was deluding himself into thinking he was treating them well. And then we had to get the hell out of there.”

Malcolm meets my eyes. I suspect we’re thinking along the same lines, but he doesn’t say anything.

I lean against the edge of his desk, as much to keep from pacing as anything else, while I try to relive those last few minutes before the escape. This has become a discussion again, and I’m grateful that he’s willing to speak freely. My next words come slowly… I’m already second-guessing my decisions there.

“I didn’t say anything to Dalik. I thought Grat was lying to delay us, and there wasn’t much of a time-window for a successful escape. But what if he missed his chance to be reunited with his wife?”

Malcolm’s response was quick, and he held my gaze.

“In prison, sir? Do you think he would have chosen to stay, to deny his daughter a chance to live in freedom, in order to reunite his family?”

I touch his shoulder lightly… a nearly unconscious gesture, one almost as reflexive as a glance toward his station on the bridge.

“I don’t know, Malcolm. It would have been a hard decision to make on the spot. But it could have been true… and he didn’t get to make the choice...”

__________________________________________________

 

### Part II – _20 years later_

Aramis knows Malcolm is home – his feet skitter noisily on the tile as he dashes down the hallway.

The door opens behind me, but I don’t turn away from the expansive view of sea and sky offered by the window wall in our San Francisco apartment. I hear the soft thud of a duffle landing on the floor… Aramis won’t be denied his greeting. After quieting the excited beagle, Malcolm crosses the room to join me, slipping his arm around my waist.

“It’s good to be home, love. The conference was good, but I’ve been looking forward to a quiet few days to relax.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I kiss him softly and whisper that I’ve missed him too. I always do, even when it’s only a short absence, and I’d like nothing more than to let the kiss deepen into much more… but I need to share some news first. I’ve been preoccupied since I got this assignment, and know I’ll not really be able to relax until I’ve talked with Malcolm about it. Picking up a portfolio with PADDs and documents, I move to the couch, knowing he’ll follow.

“Malcolm, I’ve been asked to visit Tandar Prime to assess the Tandarans as a potential member of the Federation.”

“The Tandarans? Are you serious? They might not be the last applicants I could imagine, but it’s… unexpected.”

The surprise in his voice mirrors my own reaction to learning of their request.

“Yes, very much so. And I’d like you to assist with the evaluation. I’m not at all sure I’m the best person for this assignment – I haven’t forgotten the Suliban detention centers.”

Malcolm nods, his initial surprise shifting to a quick analysis of the situation.

“I’m glad to help. I’m sure they will remember you, but I’m not certain they ever knew my identity. And with the Cabal effectively out of the picture since the end of the Temporal Cold War, it will be interesting to see how… or if… they’ve mended relations with any Suliban who are still in the area.”

I hand him a copy of a letter I received along with the request for the assessment visit. “This is from Narra… Dalik’s daughter, if you remember her. I’ve been thinking about them since I read this, and I still don’t know if I made the right choices there.”

Malcolm takes the PADD, his fingertips brushing my hand as he does… silent assurance that he understands.

 

> Dear Captain Archer,
> 
> Perhaps you might remember me. My father, Dalik, and I were living in Detention Complex 26 until you helped us escape. I’ve never forgotten you. You were the first humans I’d ever seen, the first people who weren’t Suliban or Tandaran. And you were kind to us and wanted to help.
> 
> We need your help again now. I know that you are a leader in the United Federation of Planets. The Tandarans have requested membership. I know there are technological and political requirements for members, and I am hoping that you could provide an educated and objective assessment, particularly of their political and personal rights policies.
> 
> After our escape, we didn’t go very far away, though we were always moving about. Unlike some of the other Suliban, Dalik wouldn’t leave the system for long with my mother still in a detention camp. One day he got a message, sent through many couriers – she and the rest of the Suliban in her camp had been released. No explanation or apology was ever provided, but they were each given a small amount of currency and told they were free to return to their homes. Not that most had any homes to return to… We had little to offer, but my father knew he had to rejoin her. I barely recognized my own mother… the years had been long and hard.
> 
> She said something surprising though. She told us that she’d been informed that her transfer to Detention Complex 26 had been approved… just before we escaped from there. We never knew, and she said she never knew if it was really true, or if the guard was just saying that out of anger about the escape.
> 
> In all the years we’d lived there, and all the years afterward, I never saw my father cry. But he cried that day… and she held him tight. He had been sick for some time and only lived a few months more. But reuniting our family was the happiest day of his life, I think.
> 
> As my profession, I am a teacher of children. The school is attended mainly by Suliban, but some Tandarans send their children as well. I don’t know whether this is for reasons of convenience or of philosophy, but I believe it is a good thing.
> 
> Thank you for any help you could give us. My father trusted you, and I do as well.
> 
> Narra 

 

Malcolm’s voice is quiet, his words an echo of my own response to the letter. “I’m glad to hear that their family managed to find each other. They had some difficult years. It doesn’t sound like any of them had any idea of what Grat told you just before the escape. But this does lend some credibility to his story.”

I nod, slipping the PADD back into the Tandar document portfolio. There will be time enough for both of us to review it all before we go. “Yes, it seems likely that at least some of what he was telling me was true… though we might never know for sure.”

I try to keep the doubt out of my voice, but know he’ll hear it anyway. “Consequences, Malcolm… I thought I was doing the right thing, getting them out of there. Would they have had a happier life if we’d just transported out and let events transpire? I knew we were acting at the edge of Starfleet constraints in getting them out… there was no way to liberate the other camps too. And we still don’t know what became of the rest of those who escaped that day.”

Malcolm leans in closer, resting his head on my shoulder and taking my hand. “You did what you thought best. Who’s to say that the camps would ever have been closed if the sequence of events triggered by the escape had never happened?”

An unbidden sigh escapes, but I let it pass, concentrating on the warmth of his hand around mine. “If it had been me… if it were our daughter… I wouldn’t have wanted her to grow up in that place. As much as I would have longed to be with you, and for our family to be together, I think as a parent I’d choose freedom for our child.”

There’s no hesitation in his reply. “As would I, Jon. But thank god we’ve never had to make that choice.”

“Narra is living in the Tandar Sector again… it seems there has been some forgiveness, if not forgetting.” I continue to think aloud, grateful to be able to share my thoughts and concerns with Malcolm. “I’m sure the released Suliban had a range of experiences as they tried to return to some semblance of their lives in Tandaran society. There must have been some of their former neighbors and friends who would welcome them back… but it’s likely that there was some pretty strong prejudice against them too.”

Distracted by the softness of his hair against my neck, I feel rather than see his nod of agreement. But there is a serious cautionary note in his reply. “Yes, it can’t have been easy for them. I’m hoping we’ll find they’ve been integrated into Tandaran society – workplaces, schools, politics… but that might be a lot to expect to have happened in fifteen years. This might well be a bit premature.”

“It’ll be a challenge – trying to make sure we get to see the whole picture of Tandar society and the place of the Suliban in it. I want to meet with Narra while we’re there. She seems to have been well educated and might have some suggestions for other contacts.” I know my long-buried ambivalence is surfacing, but Malcolm will understand it. “I want to feel very sure I’m making the right decision this time.”

“There will be time to look at all sides of the situation, Jonathan. The Federation Council isn’t going to decide anything without your input. And I should be able to make some quiet inquiries on my own there, as well as following up on any leads Narra can provide us.”

Before I can reply, he has lifted his face to mine and kisses me. It’s a reminder that I’m not alone in this.

“You’ll know what the right decision is, love. Eventually, you’ll know. I’m sure of that. And for what it’s worth, I do think you’re the right person to make the recommendation.”

I appreciate his confidence. I’m not sure when I began thinking of the Suliban as friends, but the idea of that feels right and my feeling of obligation extends well beyond Narra and her family.

“I hope so, Malcolm. We owe them that.”

Gathering him close, my tension slips away. I’m finally relaxed enough to welcome him home properly.


End file.
